Vaccine Development and Manufacturing

World Health Organization’s Ebola ring vaccination uses Merck & Co.’s investigational rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine to protect high-risk communities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from Ebola.

The companies expanded their partnership to develop and commercialize messenger RNA (mRNA) cancer vaccines to include shared-antigen mRNA cancer vaccines such as mRNA-5671.

Public health authorities and the biomedical research community are seeking new strategies to address global health threats.

The agency updated its list of recommended influenza virus strains that manufacturers should include in vaccines for the autumn 2018 season.

The new facility, to be built in Toronto, Canada, will significantly increase capacity for pediatric and booster vaccines.

Accelerated development of new preventives raises challenges for efficient CMC evaluation and production.

GlobalData reports the need to shift away from egg-based manufacturing of vaccines in light of influenza-related deaths.

Fluarix Tetra has been approved for use in children aged six months and above.

An antibody-based Zika virus therapeutic that protected monkeys from infection might be safe enough for administration to pregnant women.

The companies will collaborate on the development of vaccines to expand GeoVax’s cancer immunotherapy program.

Children with a rare brainstem-based cancer might be helped by a new immunotherapy that targets a mutated protein found exclusively in cancer cells.

The use of therapeutic vaccines presents a new way to manage diseases, such as cancer and sexually transmitted diseases.

This article explores some of the challenges, services, and technologies that go into ensuring that vaccines are properly temperature controlled and maintain product integrity for delivery to patients.

Challenge trials may increase in coming years as new and improved challenge agents better emulate “natural” disease states.

Alternatives to time-consuming, error-prone operations promise to reduce vaccine manufacturing costs and improve facility flexibility.

Despite the challenges and high cost of development, vaccine innovation is at an all-time high, as new approaches aim to improve global access.

The use of approved platform technologies can reduce the time and cost required to generate new vaccines.

This article discusses the potential of using high-productivity membrane chromatography to achieve intensified and flexible virus manufacturing.

The company expects to commercially launch the new vaccine in the US in the first quarter of 2018.

The Human Vaccines Project has created the Universal Influenza Vaccine Initiative, a research program that will aim to understand the human immune system’s role in the development of universal influenza vaccines.

The vaccine is approved for the prevention of shingles in adult patients aged 50 years and older.

Inovio has reported results from a study with non-human primates that showed 100% effectiveness with a DNA vaccine the company is developing with the US Army.

The companies aim to use CureVac’s proprietary messenger RNA technology to develop and commercialize up to five potential cancer vaccine products.

The two companies announced their collaboration for the production and development of cancer vaccines.

The vaccine is a non-live, recombinant subunit vaccine that combines an antigen and an adjuvant system to trigger a targeted and long-lasting immune response to the shingle-causing virus.

Through the support of the Japanese agency, Daiichi Sankyo intends to further develop its genetic vaccine platform focused around its new nucleic acid delivery technology.

The company is investing EUR 170 million (US$201 million) to expand its vaccine manufacturing site in France for its newest influenza vaccine.

The collaboration will focus on developing a novel and differentiated challenge model for respiratory syncytial virus.

The Danish biotechnology company has been awarded a sole-source BARDA contract valued at more than $539 million for a freeze-dried smallpox vaccine.

Under Project BioShield, the agency could provide more than $170 million in funding to purchase and support late-stage development of Ebola vaccines and therapeutic drugs.